Trail of bad news out of government eroding public confidence

Published: Friday, March 09, 2007

RON FOURNIERASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - Lies from the White House. Incompetence in treating wounded veterans. Irrelevance in Congress. Can't anybody do anything right? It's days like these that turn Americans sour on government, stoking a desire for leaders who actually lead.

Exhibit A is the perjury conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whose trial cast unflattering light on the Bush White House and the mainstream media.

Exhibit B is the shameful treatment of wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Medical Center, and the likelihood that veterans care problems are systemic - a national disgrace.

And let's not forget Iraq and Congress. Democrats and Republicans alike sometimes seem too busy posturing on the war to help win it - or at least help get out of it.

The lack of leadership is a bipartisan pox.

"The public is dispirited about Washington," said independent pollster Andy Kohut of the Pew Research Center. "They're dispirited about their leaders."

This is a moment not unlike the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when government's fatally slow response caused Americans to question the competence of local, state and federal bureaucracies. Even worse was the lack of accountability from political leaders, including President Bush.

Katrina destroyed the president's credibility - "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job"- and made many Americans wonder whether their faith in his Iraq policy was misplaced.

"It's the same story we saw with Katrina," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate. "You have tired, obsolete bureaucracies with no performance standards and with an absolute belief that avoiding change is more important than succeeding."

He was referring to Walter Reed, the civilian bureaucracy in Baghdad and "a host of other national failures," ranging from the Detroit public schools to an overcrowded prison system in California. The Katrina-like pathology is also evident in the Libby case; the White House was so obsessed with Iraq war critics that senior advisers leaked the name of a CIA official, and one aide, Libby, lied about it under oath.

"Republicans want to protect President Bush even if it's not their bureaucracy that has failed," Gingrich said, "and Democrats don't want to criticize the bureaucracies because they just want to attack President Bush."